fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Thursday, August 9, 3rd period]

Anakin didn't apologize for his behavior, you know, ever.

Which was why his gaze was just as sharp ever as he looked at the students when they gathered in the Danger Shop. And if he didn't make eye contact with Rory, well, these things happen.

"Today we're going to try something a little different," he said quietly, pointing to two motorcycle-esque machines hovering before him. "This is a swoop bike," he said, pointing to one, "and the one on the left is a speeder bike, the slightly newer model, which is also equipped with a laser cannon. Don't use the laser cannon. Both fly like the motorcycles of this world drive, but can get up to 400 kilometers an hour. That being said, you will be wearing helmets --" fortunately for the class, much more attractive than the Nubian ones from the previous week, "--and there are two different scenarios based on your level of skill. One is a desert planet with nothing to hit. The second is a forest moon with trees hundreds of meters tall."

He glanced around at them. "Please don't hit a tree and explode. I don't care that it won't actually kill you. There'd be paperwork and I don't feel like dealing with That Woman today. In two weeks, we'll be meeting at my shuttle and doing some actual space flight. If you hurt my ship, I'll be unhappy. If you demonstrate today you don't have the maturity to fly responsibly, you won't be asked to come along." He stared hard at each student. "Questions? No? Let's begin."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Johnny grinned in happiness at the thought of his bike, and increased the speed on the speeder bike a bit.

"It's a Harley XR-750. 'S not nearly as fast as this is, but it's light enough that I can pull tricks an' jumps with it."

He let out a chuckle. " 'M guessin' that there's a whole story behind this."

"Oooooh, seriously?!" Rikku bounced a little. "That sounds so cool! Can I see it some time? What kind of tricks?! And oh! Me and Mel were just blowing off steam and we needed a sweet car, and we took Deadpool's. We threw haste on it, and flamestrike, and put a chimichanga maker in the dash? But then it kinda got blown up on the way back from Florida."

"Yeah, sure. Soon as I figure out where'd be the best place to bring it out, I'll letcha see it. 'Ve offered a couple other people rides on my bike, an' I'll offer the same to you if you want," he said.

Johnny burst out laughing on the story, and almost lost his grip on Rikku before regaining his balance. "I wish I coulda seen that, was all he managed to get out."

"Bring it out?" Rikku asked. "Is it stuck somewhere? And ooooh, I'd love to go for a ride on it! And we left what was left of the car in front of Deadpool's house. It might still be there. It's got scorch marks and there's a sunroof that shouldn't be there and some cabbages on the seats but the chimichanga maker? That sucker still works."

" 'S in the school garage, but I need somewhere where's there's space enough to do stuff without runnin' people over." He readjusted his posture on the bike so that he was comfortable again, and evened out control of the speed.

"An' next time in town, I'll have t'go see it and make me some chimichangas."

"They were good ones, too," Rikku said, nodding. "'Cause we stole the chimichanga maker from this place called Bert's that said it had the best ones around. And they were right."

Issues such as "theft" and "property rights" didn't seem to be a big concern to her.

"Oooooh. There were some really flat places on the way to Florida. Like Georgia had some fields that just went on and on. But that was kinda a few hours away."

"Was that here in Fandom or somewhere else? Don't think I've been to Bert's before," he said. Johnny was a little concerned about the stealing but not enough to care deeply about it.

"I was thinkin' somewhere much closer to the school. Dunno that I wanna go all the way to Georgia to get some practice time in."

Rikku laughed. "No, this was, like, after we broke out of jail. Dunno where it was, we were zipping down the highway and I'm not from here so it all kinda ... runs together, you know?"

She thought for a minute. "There's gotta be somewhere around here, yeah? I mean, it's a shame you couldn't just ... rope off bits of the park or something."

Johnny laughed more at Rikku's story. "You broke outta jail? You must have one heckuva interesting life."

He thought about Rikku's comment for a minute in silence. "Can't I?" he asked, never one to think about the consequence of actions.

"Kinda, yeah. Busy at least. Sometimes that's good, and other times ... not so much, you know?" Rikku tried for some of the more swooping curves, shivering a little. This bike rocked. "And I ... whoa. You know what? I don't know why you couldn't! You could totally just set up an area and go to town. Keep your eyes peeled for people screwing off and you'd be set, yeah?"

"You're pretty good at this," he told Rikku, instinctively leaning into the curves on the bike's path. He lessened the speed while doing loops before bringing it back up on the flats. "An' busy's always better than sittin' around doing nothin'."

Johnny started to stare off into space a bit. "Yeah, that'd work good. 'D love to perform in front of an audience again. Need t'get some rope and tent pegs, an' maybe some basic ramps..."

He trailed off as he got lost in the idea and started planning out just what he would need to make things work.

"Thanks!" Rikku laughed. "Professor Skywalker said you're supposed to go really fast, and that much I'm totally good at. In fact, let's see what this baby can do."

She considered for a minute. "You know, you could announce it ahead of time, like a show, and that'd make it easier to rope it off, 'cause then people wouldn't just wander in. Plus that sounds really cool to see, you know?"

Flight and Flying [Thursday, August 9, 3rd period]

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!

Re: Fly in the desert!